"When I got there, there was a vehicle upside down in the water and people were indicating, 'There's a person inside,'" said Barney.

Elizabeth Funk was the driver trapped in her car.

About 4 p.m., the Ames High School junior was driving toward Mortensen Road, just south of Cyclone Stadium. Police said another driver traveling northbound on University Boulevard failed to yield while making a left turn and nearly hit Funk's car head-on.

Funk veered right and jumped the curb, her car landed upside-down in Worrell Creek and started filling with water.

"I could hear a female screaming inside," said Barney. "Driver side window was up so I had to break that with my baton. I could feel her, but I couldn't pull her out because she was caught in the seat belt."

The freezing cold water was murky.

"I couldn't see anything, it was all by feel," said Barney.

He used his pocketknife to cut Funk's seat belt and pulled her out before it was too late.

"I was screaming out loud, I was like this is not happening -- this is not real. I was yelling like, 'God save me, save me,'" said Funk.

"I really thought that I was maybe going to die and it was literally like right in the nick of time. The perfect timing, right as I was running out of breath, he pulled me out of the car so just thank you," said Funk.

Funk is on the Ames high varsity swim team, so when she said she took her last breath underwater, she knows what she's talking about.